Properties Magazine October 2017 : Page 32

Science on Display Kent State University’s new Integrated Sciences Building caps facility upgrade program By Mark Watt | Photos by Scott Pease O n an early autumn afternoon, James Blank, Ph.D. is walking across the Student Green at Kent State University, his eyes scanning the surroundings. To the north is the Student Center plaza, which serves as the university’s front door. To the south, construction is underway to widen and beautify Summit Street, a main thoroughfare bordering campus. At the moment, however, the sun is shining brightest – in more ways than one – on the 66,000-square-foot structure straight ahead of us to the east: the newly completed, $40 million Integrated Sciences Building (ISB). a design that embraces transparency and invites the attention of passersby. “It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?” says Blank, dean of KSU’s College of Arts and Sciences. “This project puts science on display at Kent State like never before. Most sci-ence buildings, even brand new ones, don’t have such a combination of beauti-ful aesthetic style and functionality. This building has both.” Conceived as an open-design, inter-disciplinary facility, the highly flexible ISB houses classrooms, research labs and instructional labs, as well as faculty offices for the departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biological Sciences and Physics. “The idea was to create a state-of-the-art building that supports contemporary sci-ence instruction and innovative research,” says Sandra Morgan, director of External Affairs and Communications for KSU’s College of Arts & Sciences. “At the same time, there was a goal to incorporate a variety of open, public spaces that encour-age the cross pollination of ideas between students and faculty from various disci-plines. Instead of an environment where students hurry in or out of the building between classes, we wanted to create Properties | October 2017 Designed by Maryland-based architec-tural firm Ayers Saint Gross and built by a joint venture of Turner Construction and Van Auken Akins Architects as CM at Risk, the ISB radiates with activity as students pass through its monumental entryway, climb interior stairs or gather in classrooms and communal spaces, all visible from outside through expansive walls of glass. Wrapping around and physically connected to the existing, 1968-built Williams Hall, the steel-framed, two-story facility effectively serves as the new face of science education at Kent State with 32